Helix3D 0.9.0

Full Changelog: v0.8.2...v0.9.0

Helix3D 0.8.2

Full Changelog: v0.8.1...v0.8.2

Helix3D 0.8.1

Full Changelog: v0.8.0...v0.8.1

Helix3D 0.8.0

Variable Pitch Helix

A second command, for helices whose pitch and radius change along their length: progressive springs, timing screws, anything that is not the same coil the whole way down. You give it a table of stations, each with a radius, a pitch, and the turns to the next one, and it blends between them either smoothly or linearly.

Rows are added and removed as you need them. Click one and the stretch of helix that row controls lights up in the preview, so you can see what you are about to change before you change it. Either end can run flat for a set number of turns and then transition into the first or last station, the way a spring with ground ends does.

It keeps itself up to date

Helix3D now asks GitHub about once a day whether there is a newer release. When there is, it downloads it quietly and waits. The next time you finish with a helix command it asks whether you want it, and you can take it, put it off, or skip that version for good. Nothing is replaced unless you say yes, and nothing interrupts you mid-command. Your settings and your log are left alone, and the version it replaced is kept in .helix3d-backup next to the add-in.

It will not update a copy running out of a clone of the repository, and if it cannot verify a certificate it does nothing at all rather than trusting whatever answered. The Updates section of the README is straight about what those checks are worth: they show the download arrived intact from GitHub, they do not show the code is safe. Signed releases would fix that properly and this does not do it.

3D Helix is now Constant Helix

The name only ever made sense on its own. Next to Variable Pitch Helix it needed to say which one it was.

Both commands have also come off the ribbon. They sit in the dropdown at the bottom of the Sketch Create and Solid Create panels instead, so the add-in takes no ribbon space unless you want it to. If you reach for one often, right-click it in that dropdown and choose Pin to Toolbar. That choice now survives a restart and an update, which it did not before.

One undo entry per command

Creating a helix used to leave five entries in Fusion's undo list. Four of them were housekeeping the add-in was doing to itself: switching the origin planes on and off around the dialog, and nudging the sketch so that anything built on the curve noticed it had changed. All of that now happens inside the command, so it rides along in the single entry with the helix, and editing a helix is one entry too. A sweep built along a helix still follows it the moment you finish the edit.

Fixes

• Editing a variable pitch helix now previews, and puts your picked points back into the pickers. Both were failing on code written for the other dialog.
• A helix could lose track of which mode it was in and stop rebuilding. It now works its mode out from the parameters it carries, and a rebuild that still cannot tell leaves the curve alone rather than throwing.
• Every field in both dialogs has a title, a plain description and, where it helps, a picture.

Full Changelog: v0.7.7...v0.8.0

Helix3D 0.7.7

Full Changelog: v0.7.6...v0.7.7

Helix3D 0.7.6

Full Changelog: v0.7.5...v0.7.6

Helix3D 0.7.5

Full Changelog: v0.7.4...v0.7.5

Helix3D 0.7.4

Full Changelog: v0.7.3...v0.7.4